Matches to Make After UFC Fight Night ‘Hunt vs. Mir’

Only a select few men can withstand a clean punch from Mark Hunt.
Frank
Mir was not one of them.

Hunt felled the former
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder with a
jarring right hand behind the ear in the first round of their
UFC Fight Night “Hunt vs. Mir” main event on Saturday at the
Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane, Australia. Mir met his
end 3:01 into round one, the victim of a walk-off knockout from
“The Super Samoan.”

The soon-to-be 42-year-old Hunt continues to defy Father Time. He
has compiled a 7-3-1 record across his last 11 appearances, with
his only losses coming to No. 1 contender Stipe
Miocic, former champion Junior dos
Santos and current titleholder Fabricio
Werdum. Hunt has taken out his last two opponents, Mir and
Antonio
Silva, in less than seven minutes combined. If there is a
fountain of youth in MMA, the 2001 K-1 World Grand Prix winner has
tapped into it.

In wake of UFC Fight Night “Hunt vs. Mir,” here are five matchups
that ought to be considered:

Mark Hunt vs.
Alistair
Overeem-Andrei
Arlovski winner: No one knows how long the Hunt
renaissance will last, but he has already bucked the conventional
wisdom surrounding an old man succeeding in a young man’s game. The
41-year-old New Zealand native has rebounded from back-to-back
losses to Werdum and Miocic with consecutive first-round finishes
against Mir and Silva. Arlovski will face Overeem in a UFC Fight
Night headliner on May 8 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Neil Magny
vs. Tyron
Woodley: Magny weathered a sustained punching barrage
from former Bellator MMA champion Hector
Lombard, roared back from the brink and became the first
fighter to stop the American Top Team-trained judoka in their
co-main event. According to FightMetric data, Lombard landed 64 of
his 77 total strikes in the first round, nearly forging a finish of
his own. Magny returned the favor in the second -- he connected on
142 strikes, 114 of them deemed significant -- before closing it
out 46 seconds into the third. The Elevation Fight Team rep has won
10 of his past 11 bouts. Woodley was promised a welterweight title
shot but has not fought since he was awarded a split decision
against Kelvin
Gastelum at UFC 183 more than a year ago.

Jake
Matthews vs. James
Krause: Matthews has begun to shed his prospect label.
The 21-year-old Australian walked away with the most significant
victory of his career, as he submitted Johnny Case
with a third-round rear-naked choke and snapped the Power MMA Team
standout’s 12-fight winning streak in the process. Matthews has
successfully rebounded from being guillotined by the unbeaten
James
Vick in May, pocketing wins over Case and Akbarh
Arreola. A Bellator, World Extreme Cagefighting and
Resurrection Fighting Alliance alum, Krause last competed at UFC
Fight Night “Cerrone vs. Oliveira” on Feb. 21, when he claimed a
unanimous decision over Shane
Campbell.

Steve Bosse
vs. Oluwale
Bamgbose: Former hockey enforcers tend to pack quite a
punch. Bosse wiped out James Te
Huna with a short right hook in their brief middleweight
showcase, as the Canadian needed just 52 seconds to close the deal.
The 34-year-old showed no residual effects from his violent
knockout loss to Thiago
Santos in June and now has nine first-round finishes to his
credit. A former Ring of Combat champion, Bamgbose last saw action
at UFC Fight Night 83 in February, when he cut through Daniel
Sarafian with a head kick and follow-up punches in 60 seconds
at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

Alan Jouban
vs. Nordine
Taleb: Jouban seems immune to dull fights. The Black
House rep and Eddie Bravo protégé engaged in another barn burner,
this time laying waste to Brendan O’Reilly with vicious elbow
strikes and punches in the first round. Jouban has rattled off six
wins across his last eight appearances, a disputed decision loss to
Warlley
Alves and a technical knockout defeat to the menacing Albert
Tumenov his only missteps. Taleb has compiled a 4-1 mark in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship. The Tristar Gym rep last fought at
UFC 196 on March 5, when he took care of former Jungle Fight
champion Erick Silva
with one punch.